A Close Call for Ellery Queen

Watch Movie

A Close Call for Ellery Queen

"Fiction And Radio's Foremost Mystery Buster Tackles His Most Baffling Case"

1942

1h 7m

6.1(4 votes)

Adventure

Crime

Mystery

Overview

Amateur sleuth Ellery Queen learns the truth about a businessman's two long-lost daughters.

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

William Gargan

Ellery Queen

Margaret Lindsay

Nikki Porter

Charley Grapewin

Insp. Queen

Ralph Morgan

Alan Rogers

Kay Linaker

Margo Rogers

Edward Norris

Stewart Cole

James Burke

Sgt. Velie

Addison Richards

Lester Younger

Charles Judels

Corday

Andrew Tombes

Bates

Creative team

Directed by: James P. Hogan
Written by: Frederic Dannay
Manfred Lee

Similar Movies

5.7

2017

Stegman Is Dead

In this crime comedy, bizarre assassins must come together to unravel the puzzle of Stegman's blackmail secret, and why he's already dead on the set of his own porn film.

Movie

4.1

1929

Her Private Affair

A married society woman accidentally kills her would-be lover and blackmailer and then suffers a crisis of conscience when his disgruntled butler is charged with the crime.

Movie

6.5

1934

Evelyn Prentice

A criminal lawyer's wife is blackmailed when she is falsely accused of infidelity.

Movie

6.0

2024

Starring Jerry as Himself

Jerry, an ordinary immigrant dad, retired in Orlando, is recruited to be an undercover agent for the Chinese police. Jerry’s family recreates the events on film and his three sons discover a darker truth. True crime meets spy thriller in this genre-bending docufiction hybrid about an immigrant’s search for the American dream. A Slamdance Film Festival Grand Jury and Audience Award winner.

Movie

2.2

1999

Dr. Wong's Virtual Hell

Rachel Sheppard is a millionaire’s daughter, kidnapped for ransom and tortured in the weird and wonderful Virtual Hell of Dr Wong. Nelly and her toyboy assistant call on the help of the world’s greatest magician, Johnny Cagliostro.

Movie

7.3

1964

Blood and Black Lace

Isabella, a young model, is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a fashion house in Rome. When her diary, which details the house employees' many vices, disappears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find it.

Movie

6.3

1971

The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

After her husband dies in a freak plane accident, a woman leaves London for Athens to collect his generous life insurance policy. She soon discovers that others besides herself are keen to get their hands on the money - and are willing to kill for it. Meanwhile, a private investigator arrives to investigate irregularities in the claim, teaming up with a beautiful reporter.

Movie

6.6

2023

Adagio

Tangled up with blackmail and crooked cops, the son of a former gangster seeks out his father's old friends, who risk everything to save him.

Movie

7.5

1956

Behind the Headlines

Newspaper reporters compete with London police to solve a murder.

Movie

6.0

1919

A Sporting Chance

John Stonehouse (William Russell) checks into a hotel, intending to commit suicide. But instead he winds up helping a girl, Gilberte Bonheur (Fritzi Brunette), out of a jam. He finds her bending over a man who she has apparently killed, and since he's about to kill himself anyway, he offers to assume the blame. Throw a valuable emerald into the works, and the fact that the dead man suddenly comes back to life, and Stonehouse -- not to mention the audience -- becomes thoroughly befuddled by it all. Everything clears up, however, when Gilberte gives him a theater ticket -- it turns out that everything he went through was the plot to a stage play, enacted in real life by the actors. The critics roasted the play, saying it wasn't true to life, and this was their proof that the situations really could happen. Gilberte retires from acting when Stonehouse proposes.

Movie

6.2

1936

The Princess Comes Across

A Swedish princess boards an ocean liner in Europe en route to an acting career in America and finds herself getting inconveniently attached to a bandleader returning home. To complicate matters, a blackmailer on board apparently knows she is not who she claims to be - and he has his sights set on other passengers with secrets of their own. In the meantime an escaped killer has stowed away under someone else's identity, and is killing again to cover his tracks; five international police detectives on board are heading the investigation to find him. When evidence points to the princess and bandleader, they must find the killer themselves - before he finds them.

Movie

6.8

1963

The Informers

When the detective in charge of investigating a series of bank robberies starts to get too close to the culprits, they set up a blackmail scheme to warn him off. But when the crooks begin to fall out with each other, the police learn the truth.

Movie

6.1

2010

Date Night

Phil and Claire Foster fear that their mild-mannered relationship may be falling into a stale rut. During their weekly date night, their dinner reservation leads to their being mistaken for a couple of thieves—and now a number of unsavoury characters want Phil and Claire killed.

Movie

5.8

2002

The Cat's Meow

Semi-true story of the Hollywood murder that occurred at a star-studded gathering aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924.

Movie

6.3

1954

Private Hell 36

In New York City, a bank robbery of $300,000 goes unsolved for a year, until some of the marked bills are found in a Los Angeles drugstore theft. Police detectives Cal Bruner and Jack Farnham investigate and are led from the drugstore to a nightclub, where singer Lilli is another recipient of a stolen bill. With Lilli's help, the partners track down the remaining money, but both Lilli and Jack are dismayed when Cal decides he wants to keep part of it.

Movie

6.8

1950

Mystery Street

When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.

Movie

6.7

1993

The Firm

Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by 'The Firm' and made an offer he doesn't refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice - work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan...

Movie

6.5

1999

A Slight Case of Murder

In the midst of a spat, film critic Terry Thorpe accidentally kills his lover. Though Thorpe covers his tracks, he raises the suspicions of a private investigator, who then tries to blackmail him. Thorpe also falls under the watchful eye of Detective Fred Stapelli, a cop who is intent on becoming a screenwriter. Before long, Thorpe's girlfriend, Kit, and Stapelli's wife, Patricia, are roped into the case.

Movie

5.7

1998

Judas Kiss

The shooting of a U.S. senator's wife raises the stakes for kidnappers seeking a hefty ransom for a computer magnate.

Movie

3.8

1954

Jail Bait

Don Gregor, the son of famous plastic surgeon Dr. Boris Gregor, begins to hang around with young criminal Vic Brady and carry a gun. The pair attempt an armed holdup, and when things start to go wrong Gregor accidentally kills a night watchman. Fearing that Gregor plans to turn himself in, Brady kills him and blackmails Dr. Gregor into giving him a new face.

Movie

Recommended Movies

6.1

2020

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

After freeing a young Bedouin girl from her unjust imprisonment in Jerusalem, an Australian adventuress, together with her devoted police detective friend, begins to unravel a decade-old mystery concerning priceless emeralds, an ancient curse and the disappearance of the girl's mother and massacre of her tribe.

Movie

6.2

2010

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster

Scooby-Doo and the gang are on the case when a mysterious lake monster starts scaring the guests at a summer resort in Erie Point, where Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy have taken on seasonal jobs to pay for a barn they accidentally burned down. But in addition to sneaking suspicions, there's some romance in the air.

Movie

6.5

1953

The Blue Gardenia

Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.

Movie

6.9

2018

Benji

Two school kids strike up a friendship with an orphaned puppy named Benji. When danger befalls them and they end up kidnapped by robbers who are in over their heads, Benji and his scruffy sidekick come to the rescue.

Movie

6.7

1947

Song of the Thin Man

Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.

Movie

7.1

1939

Another Thin Man

Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.

Movie

6.8

1975

The Return of the Pink Panther

The famous Pink Panther jewel has once again been stolen and Inspector Clouseau is called in to catch the thief. The Inspector is convinced that 'The Phantom' has returned and utilises all of his resources – himself and his Asian manservant – to reveal the identity of 'The Phantom'.

Movie

7.1

2005

Aloha Scooby-Doo!

The Mystery Gang goes to Hawaii for the Big Kahuna of Hanahuna Surfing Contest. However, the gang and the locals find the island invaded by the vengeful Wiki Tiki spirit and his demons.

Movie

6.7

1973

The Night Strangler

After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he’s on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer murders a certain number of people, drains them of their blood, and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?

Movie

7.2

1964

A Shot in the Dark

Inspector Jacques Clouseau, smitten with the accused maid Maria Gambrelli, unwittingly turns a straightforward murder investigation into a comedic series of mishaps, testing the patience of his irritable boss Charles Dreyfus as casualties mount.

Movie

7.0

1941

Shadow of the Thin Man

High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.

Movie

6.5

1945

Fallen Angel

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

Movie

5.9

1986

Murder in Three Acts

In Acapulco, Hercule Poirot attends a dinner party in which one of the guests clutches his throat and suddenly dies. The causes seem to be natural until another party with most of the same guests produces another corpse.

Movie

7.6

1948

Oliver Twist

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

Movie

6.7

2014

The Assault

After a cheerleader is sexually assaulted by the high school football team, she must overcome her shame and use the evidence gathered from the subsequent social media firestorm to piece together the night that she can't remember in her fight for justice. Based on the true story of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.

Movie

6.9

2022

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!

Mystery Inc. has cracked the case to top all cases! They’ve tracked down Coco Diablo, the head of a notorious costume crime syndicate. With Coco and her kitty in prison, Mystery Inc. thinks that they can finally enjoy a break. Wrong! Suddenly, menacing doppelgänger ghosts of the Scooby crew and favorite classic foes show up in Coolsville to threaten Halloween. Now it’s up to the meddling kids to unmask the latest scoundrel and save Halloween!

Movie

6.8

1998

The Interview

A duel between a suspected murderer and a detective pressed by people who want results. But whose skin is really wanted?

Movie

7.3

1961

Murder She Said

Miss Marple believes she's seen a murder in a passing-by train, yet when the police find no evidence she decides to investigate it on her own.

Movie

Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

6.9

2017

Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

Librarian and real crime buff Aurora “Roe” Teagarden never liked Detective Sergeant Jack Burns, but she also never wanted to see him dead. When his body is found outside of Aurora’s home, she then becomes the main suspect. Determined to find the killer and clear her name, Aurora can't help but to get involved once again.

Movie

6.1

2002

Scooby-Doo

When the Mystery Inc. gang is invited to Spooky Island, a popular amusement park, they soon discover that the attractions aren't the only things that are spooky. Strange things are happening, and it's up to Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma to uncover the truth behind the mysterious happenings.

Movie